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A scene from “Lesage, 100 Years of Fashion and Decoration,” now on display at the gallery of the 19M complex in northern Paris.
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An exhibition in Paris includes work done for Yves Saint Laurent, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Karl Lagerfeld and many other haute couture designers.
A multiscreen video installation at the entrance of the new exhibition “Lesage, 100 Years of Fashion and Decoration” immediately plunges visitors into the world of couture craftsmanship. That is the kind of work the specialty house has been doing since Marie-Louise and Albert Lesage began the business, and that it now executes at the 19M complex in northern Paris, where the free exhibition is on display through Jan. 5. (Reservations are recommended, but there are some walk-in opportunities.) Projected on the walls of the dark entrance room, the minuscule stitches, overlapping sequins, golden coils and elaborate beading resemble topography, magnified by computer-generated 3-D imagery into mountains, canyons and desert-like landscapes. The images were captured from 10 swatches of haute couture embellishments, each four inches square, created over the years for Yves Saint Laurent, Elsa Schiaparelli, Madeleine Vionnet and other designers, and selected from the more than 70,000 samples in the Lesage archives. The display also features a monolithic image of tweed, the signature fabric of Chanel, which acquired Lesage in 2002 and runs it as an independent entity within its heritage craft subsidiary, Paraffection.
That dizzying introduction leads into a cluster of spaces that retrace the house’s evolution from its founding in 1924, through the golden age of Paris couture in the 1950s and ’60s, to contemporary realizations. The spaces feature photos, sketches, samples, works in progress and tools of the trade. For example, pieces from Karl Lagerfeld’s first haute couture collection for Chanel, unveiled in January 1983, mix with more recent examples of the house’s tweed suits.
“Lesage represents four generations of embroidery,” Bruno Pavlovsky, the president of the Chanel fashion group, said in a recent interview. “It’s the story of a family, but it also perfectly embodies Paris, the history of haute couture and the métiers d’art, all those specialized activities that make it possible for houses and studios to develop collections.” Today, he said, Lesage employs 100 people across France, in its embroidery ateliers, the school founded by François Lesage in 1992, and the tweed specialty factory in Pau, in the southwestern part of the country.
In addition, approximately 400 people work in the ateliers at Vastrakala, the Lesage subsidiary specializing in interior décor, in Chennai, India, run by the company’s artistic director Jean-François Lesage, a fourth-generation member of the founding family. Although the company does not disclose its annual revenue, Mr. Pavlovsky said it was in the “several tens of millions” euros.
In the exhibition, the earliest samples of embroidery recall how the Lesages purchased the archives of an atelier called Michonnet, and how Vionnet and Jeanne Paquin were among their first clients. Then, as the house became more established, collaborations with a who’s who of couture greats — including Saint Laurent, Schiaparelli, Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior — followed. Contemporary creations on display include a two-part pannier dress designed by Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton. Presented in the spring 2022 collection, it conjures an Art Deco theme through intricately worked silk, beading, rhinestones and metallic fibers. Also, a cocktail dress by the Finnish designer Jenny Hytönen, the Grand Prize winner at the 2022 Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories in France, fuses couture and science fiction with cylindrical beading, cup sequins and metallic jewels. Other installations demonstrate the scope of Lesage’s activities beyond the runway: A ballet costume embroidered with stars was designed by Mr. Lagerfeld for Valentine Colasante, a star dancer with the Paris Opéra Ballet. And under its own spotlight stands a reproduction of an extravagant look worn by Beyoncé last year while performing in Las Vegas on her Renaissance World Tour. The shaggy hot pink ensemble was made of fil coupé, a kind of Jacquard weaving technique, and faux fur made of lamé fringe; it is on loan from the French fashion brand Jacquemus.
Vastrakala fabrics designed by such internationally renowned names as Peter Marino and the Bouroullec brothers of France also are represented. There is even an example of embroidery work produced by amateurs. An as-yet unfinished series of panels, titled “Murmuration” and featuring birds in flight, is a continuing collaborative project that has been embroidered in real time, under expert supervision, by visitors to Homo Faber in Venice; during a monthlong exhibition by 19M at the Mucem in Marseille, France; and in ateliers at the annual Hyères fashion festival. Beyond creating beautiful things, or resting on its heritage, Lesage’s ultimate mission is sharing its savoir-faire, Mr. Pavlovsky said. “Embroidery has a future so long as it can adapt constantly. If Paris is about the métiers d’art, then Lesage is all about creating the right conditions so that they continue to exist.”…Read more by Tina Isaac-Goizé